Meat eating vegetarian

[SproutsAreForLife]

Rather an oxymoron, but have been vegetarian for most of my life. Haven't consumed eggs or milk for around 20 years, just the odd bit of cheese so not vegan by any stretch.

In recent years I have been pondering, as not a lot of thought went into the initial decision to become vegetarian, but it just became the norm for me. However the more I think about it, it just seems ridiculous to be vegetarian for ethnical reasons when the egg and dairy industry is not without cruelty.

I tried some meat this evening, charcuterie at a party. It was nice.

I'm thinking, is it better to eat a small amount of high welfare animal produce,rather than excluding certain animal products but not others?

I'm thinking, is it better to eat a small amount of high welfare animal produce,rather than excluding certain animal products but not others?

In my opinion, no. I don’t think the fact you don’t eat eggs and milk but do eat a small amount of cheese means you need to start eating meat because you’re not fully vegan.

It’s totally your decision though, and you don’t need to justify your diet to anyone. Please don’t call yourself vegetarian if you eat meat though!

It would be better if everyone ate less meat (I say this as a meat eater).
The pressure to label yourself veggie/vegan puts people off though.
I think that sounds fine. There are no food police (yet).

Eat whatever you like but don’t call yourself a meat eating veggie! Those threads run and run for years!

'I'm thinking, is it better to eat a small amount of high welfare animal produce, rather than excluding certain animal products but not others?' Makes sense to me. I don't eat that much meat but don't have any veggie friends or family, so will eat meat if someone else has cooked. I've also wondered about the financial impact on the meat and dairy industry if masses of people were to go veggie or vegan overnight. I would prefer to eat decent meat occassionally for both my own enjoyment and to support high welfare standards in farming.

I think you can self identify as a vegetarian and still eat meat, so long at it's just a little bit and organic, free range or local. A little trickier if you're identifying as vegan, but occasional artisan cheese is fine

I eat very little meat but don't ever think of being vegetarian.

Being sensible about diet doesn not to me mean cutting out any food group that humans have eaten for centuries.

And when I am out, fancy a bacon sandwich or just fancy some meat I will have it.

When buying for myself I choose ethically sourced meat.

I think you can self identify as a vegetarian and still eat meat, so long at it's just a little bit and organic, free range or local.

I can self identify as a biscuit but that doesn’t make me one. Vegetarians do not eat meat.

@PurpleDaisies you may need to reread my post and sprinkle with a hint of sarcasm

I don't generally refer to myself as vegetarian, as it does feel hypocritical.

🤦‍♀️ @EveryDayIsLikeMonday
I clearly need to eat a bacon sandwich.

Why are you vegetarian? Because you think it is wrong to kill animals for food, or because of cruelty in the meat farming industry?

If the latter then yes it would make more sense to shift to eating only high welfare animal products, even if that includes some meat, and ditch any low welfare or unknown welfare animal products you currently eat.

It is very difficult to ensure you only eat high welfare animal products though. Organic does not necessarily equal high welfare (though it probably avoids the worst) and all sorts of foods will contain egg or milk of unknown, probably low welfare, origin.

I'm thinking, is it better to eat a small amount of high welfare animal produce,rather than excluding certain animal products but not others?

No, it’s not.

Obviously.

If you want to eat meat, eat meat- but don’t dress it up as being better

How can it possibly be ‘better’ to eat meat more when it doesn’t reduce the amount of dairy you’re eating?!

In what odd way do you think you can justify saying ‘it might be better’?

Sorry, it makes NO sense to me

Listened to something on this recently.

If you eat eggs and fish (if pesci) you're actually doing more harm re pain to animals that if you eat beef.

Eggs are intensely farmed (as are fish). More animals are impacted for eggs, and a lot of fish are killed for 100 meals. Whereas cows lives aren't impacted so much by farming - they live outside for months/years, eat grass, then suffer one day of pain to die to produce meat. They then turn into potentially hundreds of meals. (dairy industry impact obviously has another/different impact).

Chickens and fish live for weeks in potentially much worse conditions to then be killed fairly on in their lives.

I thought this was really interesting and gave me food for thought. No pun intended.

@IncrediblySadToo It makes no sense to me either. Vegetarian = no meat, but happy to eat eggs and dairy despite cruelty of both industries.

I need to explore why I made this choice in the first place.

Also, I do not want to define myself.

I think you can self identify as a vegetarian
Language matters. Vegetarian has a meaning and it doesn't include carnivores even if the meat eaten is 'high welfare', organic or wafer-thin ham.

You may have hit a nerve, EveryDay

I think there's a word used here in the US (of course) for someone who is gearing to consume less animal/fish proteins and more plant-based foods and that is: flexitarian. It's a sort of semi-vegetarian diet as you described.

I'm thinking, is it better to eat a small amount of high welfare animal produce,rather than excluding certain animal products but not others

Yes, it would be better if everyone ate that way as demand would massively reduce, intensive farming wouldn't be necessary and welfare would improve.

But no need for a bollocks label, except perhaps omnivore or eating sustainably.

@Newnamewhodis1 that is interesting. Vegetarianism needs a revamp. Why exclude only certain animal products from a diet? It all feels a bit self righteous. Animals die for the egg and dairy industry, so vegetarians cannot be so because they love animals surely. It just doesn't make sense.

I don't eat meat but I do eat eggs, dairy and fish and I do wonder sometimes why I thought this was "better' than eating meat for all the reasons you describe. The problem for me is mainly dairy...I love milk cheese yoghurt etc and not found anything else that is an adequate replacement. If someone could sort that out please I'd happily swap to a non-animal alternative! I don't describe myself as anything really just say if asked that I don't eat meat but anything else is fine.

It makes no sense to me either. Vegetarian = no meat, but happy to eat eggs and dairy despite cruelty of both industries.

You should have been more honest in your OP - this is just another thread taking a pop at vegetarians.

Just eat what you like, don’t bother with the labels and don’t concern yourself with what other people eat unless you’re cooking for them.

I completely agree that vegetarianism makes very little sense from an animal welfare angle, and that if you are concerned enough about this then veganism is the only meaningful option (I am currently neither).

Re. the much wider environmental issue surrounding meat and dairy production, I listened to a really interesting programme on Radio 4 recently, which featured a UK small scale farmer who raised beef in an environmentally sustainable way. He made the point that we should all be eating our high-class proteins in a form that is appropriate to the climate/conditions of the country we live in, which in the UK means small quantities of high welfare meat, which is better all round than having to rely on nuts, avacados etc which have to be imported over huge distances and use significant energy and water in both cultivation and processing. I thought this was a really interesting observation.

cheese

Both those points have been made over and over again by people keen to criticise vegetarians (while doing nothing themselves).

Unless you can reduce your personal impact on the environment to zero, it’s ridiculous to say that making small steps towards that isn’t worth it.